Working With What You Have

Previously I had posted about making the best of things regarding my outdated kitchen. Continuing with that theme, and given these difficult economic times, Paul made a small change to the sink area of our kitchen that has made a world of difference. We were actually thinking of replacing some of the cabinets in our kitchen, but due to financial changes, that became out of the question.

Yet, something was in order, especially due to a leaking kitchen faucet. (The faucet for our kitchen sink had been replaced years ago, but had sprung a leak.) We have an old metal sink cabinet from the 50's. Again, I love 50's retro look, but this, like our old bathroom tub is in poor repair and not charming. The part I disliked the most was that the sink counter area had these drainage furrows so water can drain freely. A nice concept; however, this makes trying to set anything on it a challenge. If it is not set down just right, it falls in the furrow and tips over. It was really an unusable space:


So Paul purchased an oversized cutting board from a restaurant supply company and carefully sawed the back and side edges to make it cover the left sink counter area. Now, not only do I have a nice, flat surface to place soaps, sponges, etc., I also now have a large and wonderful cutting area. Here are potatoes, chopped and ready to go into soup:


I followed that with a big batch of strawberries from Sam's Club - Yum!

Along with this, Paul also replaced the wallpaper behind this area and just over the sink, which was torn and water damaged (lucky for us we still had some of the wallpaper, enough to refresh the bad stuff). He also installed a new faucet and sprayer to fix the leakage problem, and a new sprayer came with the set (with the old one, the sprayer kept getting stuck in the spray position which drove me insane). So now I have a new little area that gives me great joy: a great cutting area, a flat counter, a new water source and sprayer, and refreshed wallpaper. It is not a kitchen remodel, yet one can still find delight in the little things by making small changes that fit the budget.